Peter Kay is continuing his tour and spoke to Sara Cox about growing up in Bolton and life now
Peter Kay has admitted he has battled with weight issues for years – and has slimmed down as he “started thinking about his health”. In a new interview with Sara Cox on Radio 2 the comedian promoted his new book which includes funny tales about him trying to shed the pounds doing various fitness routines.
But Kay, who looked in great health during TV appearances last week, admitted in between his usual gags, he has been serious about wanting to lose weight for some time. When Sara asked if he ever tried to lose weight, Kay, 52, replied: “Only for the first 48 years of my life. Yeah, I had to eventually, because you start thinking about your health and things like that, don’t you? But I tried everything, flaming weight loss groups. I did quite well at one point.”
Recalling a moment when his diet slipped on a night out with wife Susan in 2000, he added: “I once went watching Green Mile with Susan at cinema in Bolton. And it’s three hours, Green Mile. It were a Sunday night, it were packed, and we were sat up back row.
“But I was sat there, and I thought, well, I fancy hotdog. So I said ‘Susan, I’m going to toilet’. So I nipped out, went down, bought a hotdog and I were doing really well on this diet. I had this hotdog and I am shoving it in because I had said that I had gone for a wee and caught a glimpse of myself. I thought ‘look at you, you should be ashamed of yourself’ and I threw the rest of it in the bin. And just as it was about to hit the bin liner I grabbed it and had another bite!
“Anyway, I went back in and ran up and sat back down and said ‘what have I missed?’. She said ‘you have had a hotdog’ and I said ‘I have not’ and she said ‘I can smell it on your breath’. That’s how bad it were honest to God.
“I used to do fitness. My mum had a fitness video once of Rosemary Connolly. Remember them? And I put it on once and I were in the back room, trying to get my breath. And I were wet through and sweaty. And she said ‘now that we’ve warmed up’, I thought, warmed up?!
“And then I joined a gym in Bolton, I joined David Lloyd. And you think, right, and then you do weights. And then I went to pool because it’s easier. You know why I stopped going? Men just talking to you naked.
“And then I went to high energy aerobics on a Monday night. High energy and everyone would grab a mat. I used to be at the back with a two-litre bottle of Tizer. And then I joined an old school gym under some arches at central Manchester, and a lad ran this gym he had me pulling a tyre outside. Honestly it were awful I used tell him I needed a wee and I’d go and sit in toilet and sob because it were like proper old school.”
Bolton born Kay’s stand up tour has been extended yet again, and for the final shows next year proceeds from his Better Late Than Never shows will go to 12 cancer charities. “Unfortunately, everybody knows someone who’s been affected on that list [of 12 charities] and I just hope people support it,” Kay said last week.
On Radio 2 he was also asked about his comedy heroes by Sara and told how one of them was unwell at the moment. He explained: “I have been really lucky because I have met them all. I met Ronnie Barker. I’d always absolutely adored Porridge, used to watch Porridge. Oh. Anyway, I wrote to him, and he wrote back. I mentioned I loved Porridge, and I’d said how much it meant to me.
“One day, this letter came, and it said ‘prison’, and I thought ‘who’s written to me from prison?’ And I opened it, and it was Her Majesty’s Prison Slade, and he’d written to me in character as Norman Fletcher….and he wrote this two-page letter all about being in prison.
“And I met Billy Connolly as well. I still keep in touch with Billy Connolly now and he’s not so good now, but he would still message and that. I think a lot of comedians in this country would not be doing what they did if it weren’t for him. I think so much of it is influenced by him, heavily. Amazing.”
* Peter Kay’s Diary: The Monthly Memoir Of a Boy From Bolton is out now, Sara Cox is on Radio 2 on weekdays 4-7pm.
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